chw42

GOODWIN!

Seems like the obvious play here, especially for defense. But TLR doesn't think so.

Sox have done this 3 times against Oakland already. Bases loaded in the first inning and end up with only 1 run.

I'll be happy with just 1 win this series given our history in Oakland and who we're throwing out there as starters. The A's are coming off an abysmal series in Toronto though. Lou Trivino singlehandedly blew 3 games for them recently.

I mean it's not that hard to predict doom and gloom for a team that hasn't been very good since the ASB. Either way, it's basically 50/50 that he's right or wrong. I think a lot of people on this board have their doubts on just how good this team will be in the playoffs, but I don't think everyone is saying for sure that they'll fail like OP is. Besides, the MLB playoffs are a total crapshoot.

Yeah up until the Rays start in Tampa, he was actually pretty decent until he got went through the order the 3rd time. That's been his issue most of his career though.

A 3.65 ERA in September/October for his career is notoriously bad I guess...

The Blue Jays were hitting the ball off Lynn that game pretty hard, they just happened to go right at people. He's clearly been working through some stuff injury-wise. I don't think he's really been fully healthy all year. First it was the neck issue he went on the IL for and now it's the knee.

That 2000 rotation was all smoke and mirrors. Parque's arm was also about to fall off and Sirotka's actually did right after the season. Lynn and Giolito's injuries aren't that serious. Rodon is concerning, but even without him, we have wayyy better starters than we did in 2000.

2021 Keuchel: 2020 Keuchel: The biggest difference I see is that his cutter is now terrible. He was mostly throwing it low and in to hitters last year. It's far more off the plate this year and up. High cutters get destroyed. And if it's too far inside, righties won't swing at it. He was in a good place with it last year, but now it's a meat pitch. It's so terrible that he throws it 5% less now. His cutter was his best pitch by run value last year at +10. It's now his second worst (next to the sinker) at -9. That's almost a 20 run difference in the span of a year. His slider is also far more inconsistent this year, which is a big reason why his number vs. lefties are terrible. It seems like he only throws his sinker and change up in almost one spot as well, which kind of goes back to the idea that he's been nibbling since he's afraid of those 2 pitches getting hit hard if they are anywhere near the middle of the plate (and they have been). I think the fact that he can't use his cutter anymore as a consistent out-pitch has decreased the effectiveness of his change up and sinker. His control on the cutter has been bad all year with the exception of a few starts. When he's had good cutter command, he's been able to post good starts vs. good offenses like Cincinnati, Tampa, and Toronto. When he hasn't had it...well you've seen how the last 3 starts went.

Lance's biggest issue is that he's probably not even gonna qualify for any leaderboards since he won't even pitch 162 innings. Both Ray and Cole are gonna get near 200 and Lynn, if he's back this week, might only get to around 155-160. The Cubs start also ruined his ERA to the point where Cole and Ray are just as competitive and that was the only thing he really had going for him.

There's a chance his error gets turned into a hit down the road.

Burr can at least get through most outings without giving up runs. Foster seems like a lost cause at this point.

Red Sox still down 1 and Clase is in the game. Magic # probably gonna stay at 18.

Singer's pretty good but I don't think he's this good. Our offense didn't even get 2 runners on in any inning today. Pathetic showing.

Royals just run wild against us.

Yoan hit that at 107 and they gave Merrifield an error lol

Seby has some good opposite field gap power. That's probably a homer in a lot of stadiums

Not a good start for Cease by any means, but I think the box score doesn't really tell the whole story. He was way better after the Perez homer and the homer itself wasn't on a bad pitch. He definitely didn't have much of anything against Merrifield or Lopez though and that cost him 2 runs.

Oh boy that was close to being a 3 run shot.

Boston just down 1 run after down 6-0 earlier in the game. Our magic # still has a chance to go down today regardless of how bad our offense is today.

Singer had a few bad starts when he had some arm fatigue issues, but otherwise he's been pretty good. Especially recently.

5 straight Ks. He's getting shelled alright.

Feels like Dylan always finds his breaking stuff towards the end of his outings recently and just ends up dominating guys before he gets to 100 pitches.